Differential expression validation of HSPB1 and DNAJ1 genes in a commercial Nelore cattle population divergent for meat tenderness

• Grant number: 18/17266-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: February 01, 2019
• End date: January 31, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Animal Husbandry - Genetics and Improvement of Domestic Animals
• Principal Investigator: Lucia Galvão de Albuquerque
• Grantee: Fernanda Santana Leite Sabino
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Jaboticabal. Jaboticabal , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In Brazil, traits related to meat quality have not been explored in genetic improvement programs due to the complexity of the phenotypic data collection and the need to slaughter the animals that will be measured, as in the case of meat tenderness. As an alternative, the study of the transcriptome is a possibility of knowing the genetic processes involved in the expression of quantitative traits. There are several studies in the literature that studied the expression of genes related to meat tenderness. However, there is enormous divergence between the genes found in the different populations studied. Thus, finding differentially expressed genes common among the different studies for characteristics of economic importance, such as meat tenderness, and validating them in a new commercial population, representative of the breeding and slaughter management of most the Brazilian herds, may bring more consistency to the use of these genes as possible biomarkers. Thus, the objective of this work is to validate genes found in the literature, related to meat tenderness, using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) in a comercial Nelore cattle population. The knowledge acquired through this study can generate important tools for the development of strategies aimed at improving meat tenderness.